Crispy & Flaky Pie Crust

Make your own homemade pie crust using basic ingredients!

 Recipe inspired by Gemma Stafford: https://www.biggerbolderbaking.com/make-pie-crust/

Ingredients

1. 1 ⅓ cups (200g) all-purpose flour
2. Pinch of salt
3. 1 tablespoon powdered sugar
4. 7 tablespoons (100g) cold unsalted butter, cubed
5. 1 egg yolk (*replaceable, see Notes)
6. 2-3 tablespoons cold water

Instructions

1.  Stir flour, powdered sugar, and salt in a mixing bowl. 

2.  Mix with hands or use a food processor to blend the dry mixture with cold cubed butter until crumbs form.

4.  Add in the egg yolk and water. Knead until a dough forms.

6.  Wrap the pastry in cling wrap and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes before rolling.

7.  Roll on a non-stick surface. Thickness depends on how big you want your pie/tart.

8.  Preheat the oven to 350 Fahrenheit.

9.  Grease the surface of your pie/tart/muffin pan before lining it up with the crust dough. 

11. Poke holes at the bottom of each crust using a fork. You can also use it for rim decoration.

12. Bake for 45-50 minutes until the crust turns golden brown. (The timing may vary due to differences between ovens.)

*Picture instructions below.

Notes

• For best results, use frozen butter and a food processor. If you are working with hands, make sure your hands are cold. Work quickly to prevent the butter from melting. The butter crumbs should remain solid in the dough to develop a successful pastry.
• If you don't eat eggs, leave the egg yolk out and add 2 tablespoons of cold water instead.
• I kept my pastry dough in the refrigerator overnight. It can also be frozen for up to 8 weeks.
• Refrigerating the dough allows the gluten to relax.
• Little holes in the crust help the steam to escape. Excessive steam can create an arching bottom. 
• If available, use the oven's lighting to check your crust occasionally. Do not open the oven when baking!

Epilogue

I am excited to bring this definitely not original but highly individual experiment to you guys. I call this an "experiment" because 1)it is not a recipe developed by myself and 2)I am the typical type of beginner baker who's likely to make some kind of "mistake" in almost every recipe! I do not have a food processor at home so I chose to work with my hands when trying to combine my dough. Unfortunately, I am at the same time an unsophisticated, slow baker: my butter melted a bit in my hands along with the heat in my apartment. I believe that's why the texture of my baked crust was sort of shortbread-like in the end (it was less elastic than it should be). It still turned out crispy and yummy though, with a strong buttery flavor. I doubt if it's possible for a flaky crust like this to hold a whole large pie together, but it will work perfectly fine in small-size recipes like my next Chocolate Pudding Tarte recipe. 

*Photos shooted by Chloe Zhang.

 Photos & text edited by Anzen.